Lake Pontchartrain
by sydsyd1134
Summary: Songfic oneshot: It was supoosed to be just an ordinary road trip between three friends. Goten retells the horrid story of how a seemingly unordinary lake stole his friends from him.


I do not own DB/Z/GT or the song. The Dragonball series belong to Akira Toriyama and the song "Lake Pontchartain" belongs to Ludo. Involves character deaths.

"Goten! Goten, oh my god. . . Are you okay? All we got was a phone call about you and Trunks and Uub. What happened?" Chi-Chi was frantically trying to comfort a shivering Goten, who was sitting on the back of an ambulance, soaking wet and wrapped in a large blanket. His eyes were wide with a mix of emotions that were foreign to his face: terror, emptiness and sorrow.

In the past few years a great deal has changed in the lives of the Z warriors. Uub was able to take breaks from training with Goku on Kami's Lookout to experience adolescence with Trunks and Goten. Immediately the trio clicked and managed to get themselves in many sticky situations. A few months ago, the trio decided to go on a trip to Jackson, Mississippi.

A few weeks into the trip, Goten suggested that the families go on a few day long road trip down to see New Orleans. After convincing Trunks and Uub, they begged their parents. Trunks bought a new car for the occasion, and "borrowed" a few hundred dollars from his mother. The adults decided to just not ask where they got the goods from and the boys were on their way.

A few hours after the darks had left; a dark ominous storm was beginning to come in. The families, Son and Brief, were sitting in their hotel room when suddenly a horror filled, empty feeling struck Goku and Vegeta. Their panic reached a peak when Chi-Chi's phone rang. A police officer was calling about a problem. They needed to come down to the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, because Goten refused to talk without his family there and he was not allowed to leave the crime scene. The trio immediately rushed out into the storm and drove the three hours down to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain to find Goten in the back of an ambulance crying, shivering, and unable to talk.

"Goten, please. Tell us what happened. Where are Trunks and Uub?" Chi-Chi questioned gently as Goku, Bulma, and Vegeta were impatiently waiting behind him.

"I need your statement, son." The officer quietly stated while the thunderstorm raged.

Goten looked up with soulless eyes and nodded. With a shuddering voice he began his tale.

"I'll tell it like it happened, it was Uub and Trunks and me.  
>Just a few po' boys trying to get up outta Missouri."<p>

He looked over his mother, whom nodded encouragingly.

"Took 55 to Louisiana, stopped by the highway to eat.  
>They both had crawfish, strictly chicken for me."<p>

At this he made a small face. As of late Goten lost his taste for fish after eating it for so long.

"Back out under thunderheads, the radio was Southern soul.  
>They interrupted Clarence Carter with a strange-ass local show,<br>They were sayin'…"

Here he stopped and shuddered at the unpleasant memory.

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain  
>Rest your soul and feed your brain<br>That's where you will get to see  
>Everything the water can be."<p>

A flash of lightening and burst of thunder caused the wives to jump slightly. The very weather seemed furious and ominous as Goten continued his story.

"The rain was comin' down, the wind was howlin' outside of Slidell.  
>It was the kinda night that makes you think the whole world's goin' to hell."<p>

Vegeta snorted hauntingly. '_I thought I knew what hell was like…'_

"We got off on an exit 'cause we couldn't read the map so great.  
>Near the Choctaw Motel, we parked to deliberate.<br>When out of the bayou came a man like the lake had a tongue  
>He was right up on the glass, all yellow-eyed, black teeth, bangin' on the<br>windshield screamin' like a demon at the top of his lungs,"

Goku and Bulma stood slightly closer to each other and Chi-Chi, spooked out by the retelling of these haunted occurrences. As Goten continued with his story, it seemed like you could hear the man yelling the chant with Goten.

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain  
>Rest your soul and feed your brain<br>Free for you and all your friends!  
>Crawfish 'til the bitter end.<br>Come down to Lake Pontchartrain.  
>Wade to where the shallows break.<br>That's where you will get to see  
>Everything the water can be."<p>

Goten stopped and took a shuddering breath. He looked at his mother and father with tear-stained eyes, filled with regret. In the back he could see his big brother Gohan talking with the police, but he knew those ears were also listening in to his tale.

"I was driving out of there as fast as a Camry could.  
>But the interstate was flooded and I had to take the road through the woods.<br>Bad move in retrospect, the road disappeared in the rain.  
>And I stood on the brakes when I saw the sign: 'Lake Pontchartrain'"<p>

Goten's eyes became distant and he seemed to be reliving the entire experience.

"Trunks was yelling that he saw somebody out in the swells.  
>He jumped out runnin' and Uub was goin' as well.<br>'Come back!' Why the hell would they leave the car?"

He looked around desperately, as if trying to ask Bulma, Vegeta and Goku why their son and Goku's apprentice would do that. Goten took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. Looking at the lake, he whispered with hesitation.

"And that's when I heard it, make no mistake  
>the voices were calling them from under the lake."<p>

The police officer looked at him speculatively. Chi-Chi followed her son's line of sight to the lake, which seemed to rage in the thunderstorm. Vegeta, Bulma, Goku, Gohan, and the officer turned as a disconcerting howl came from the lake. It even appeared to echo the call to come to its depths as Goten continued.

"Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...  
>Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...<br>Come down to Lake Pontchartrain...  
>Come down to Lake Pontchartrain..."<p>

Goten's face became darker and more terrified as he finished his narrative.

"The crawfish were screaming, the waves danced in time.  
>My friends went in deeper, the water, it climbed!<br>I watched in terror, the lake opened wide  
>And horribly roaring, it pulled them inside."<p>

Vegeta started yelling at Goten. "No! You're lying! Trunks would never ever do something like that! What did you do to him?" As Bulma began to scream "He isn't! He can't be! Where are they?" tears in her eyes.

Goten looked at them with dead black eyes.

"That's how it happened, why would I lie?  
>There were no bodies; I've got none to hide."<p>

Vegeta and Bulma stopped their yelling and looked at him, startled by his monotone response to their violent accusations. Goten turned to the police officer.

"I'm just a boy, lost his friends in the rain,  
>Any more questions, just go and ask Lake Pontchartrain."<p>

The officer looked at Son Goten and then at the lake, before leaving to order his fellow officers to go home and come back to search the lake after the storm cleared for the bodies of two young men. One the heir to Capsule Corp, the other the supposed apprentice of the survivor's father.

Goten was left in the arms of his father, crying, cursing out to the lake.


End file.
